- Bribe Fighter
- 13 years ago
- 2462 views
Genuine Citizen needs to pay up for a Passport
March 22nd, 2010 I applied for renewing my passport with all required documents. Everything went smoothly,I mean the way things go smoothly in India. Travelled 40km to the Passport office at Bhikaji Cama Place, New delhi (lack of public transportation from Gurgaon), parked the car in proper parking area. But the parking ticket said that I am supposed to pay Rs. 30/ and not the official amt i.e Rs. 10/. This additional Rs. 20/ is for me being lucky to have got a parking slot in the rush hour. Ok. Small bribe paid here. Didnt think of it as bribe at that point of time although. Stood in queue for an hour to get the token necessary to enter the passport office and then almost got smothered for another 2 hours in the other queue for depositing the form. Finally i was out. With a bottle of water sold aptly outside the building, i marched towards my car, sat inside the pre-heated oven and set off for the 40km journey to home sweet home. Policeman from the local police office called me 3 weeks later for police verification, to which i complied, did everything that i was asked to do except for doling out the "Bapuji on green paper" to him which could have otherwise brought a smile to his face and peace in my life. One year on, I am still stuck there. The police verification report says that my address is incorrect. Passport office asks me to submit document again, I do it. NO verification done. No progress towards new passport. Passport office asks to resubmit it. No progress again. Last time I went to the Passport office was on 24th March 2011, yes, to submit necessary documents again. I befriended a couple of people of different age groups and on hearing my part of story they thought that I am a fool."Pay to ********** hi padta hai" --is the general opinion. However, on 29th of March 2011, my application status was updated--"Submit again". All for the price of not paying the price for police verification.
POST SCRIPT: My partner applied for renewal on the same day and he got it in 2 month. Bingo!! He paid without letting me know.